"Israel is trapped on the outskirts of Gaza without an exit strategy and without any cease-fire on the horizon", writes Alex Fishman in Yediot Ahronoth newspaper.

"When the door to an orderly exit is closed, only two options remain: either to withdraw unilaterally or to continue to creep inward, deeper into the Gaza Strip."

Continuing into Gaza threatens to send an already critical humanitarian crisis out of control.

While some insist that Israel should seize the chance to destory Hamas's tunnels and weapons, military experts admit that locating all the tunnels is nigh on impossible. Many of their entrances are in residential areas, sometimes within booby-trapped houses.

Any effort to close all the tunnels would cost many more lives on both sides.

Reaching a ceasefire is no easier. Numerous truces have failed in the past few weeks.

A Palestinian child covers her eyes to protect them from the dust flying from a house hit by an Israeli military strike, in Gaza (Getty)

If a ceasefire is reached, Hamas stands to gain. The group can claim a victory if its terms include opening the Rafah crossing, the release of Palestinian prisoners or expanding Gaza's maritime borders. At the same time this would weaken the Palestinian Authority (PA), demonstrating that Hamas was able to achieve with violence what the PA could not through negotiations.

For Israel's prime minister, accepting a ceasefire acquiescing to Hamas's demands could de-stabilise or even destroy his fragile coalition. Benjamin Netanyahu has already come under fire for previous ceasefire deals which were violated by Hamas.

A man shouts for help after two people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a van in Gaza City (AP)

The one opportunity comes from the unprecedented overlap of interests among Egypt, the Palestinian Authority and Israel, as well as Jordan and Saudi Arabia, who are striving for a ceasefire formula.

Such a framework might include measures to ease the siege on Gaza. However, crucially, such an outcome could be made conditional on the PA being invested with responsibility for monitoring the border crossings in Gaza. The same principle could be applied to other Hamas demands. As such, both Hamas and the PA would stand to gain, while Israel would contribute to empowering the one actor it is able to negotiate with - President Abbas.